day march 12th. welcome to "way too early." we are following breaking news this morning out of ferguson missouri where just hours after the city's police chief resigned, two police officers were shot during protests outside the ferguson police department. the officers were taken to a nearby hospital with their conditions still unknown. they're not identified at this point but some information is being provided. one is a 41-year-old st. louis county police officers who a veteran and the other is 32 years old from webster groves police department who's been with the department for five years. we want to bring in as much information as we can. we begin with nbc producer on the scene all night. jennifer, describe for us what you saw and what you know at this point. >> reporter: well chief bell mar describe i would echo. the protest has been going on since a little after eight and was fairly routine with chanting

and back and forth and things had begun to quiet down. officers had begun to left their line although there were still about 30 officers there. we were thinking things were going to break up. there were still maybe 25 to maybe as even as 50 protests but it was quiet and we were thinking it was going to break down. it was shortly after midnight and then we heard these loud noises. three or four very loud pops and i think we all thought it was fireworks at first, at least i did. i didn't recognize it as gunfire, but the commotion, the officers started yelling get down, get down. everyone hit the deck and at that point, it was extraordinarily frightens, because we did not know -- it was coming from right across the street. my crew they both saw a muzzle

flash from across the street which i didn't see. but it all became very real and we at the officer's urging we hunched down behind a brick wall about three feet high that is part of a decorative little area between the police department and flpd and we were right next to police officers were their guns drawn looking ahead and we heard them say is it one or two officers down? two officers down and within about ten minutes the police officers told us we had to get back to the back of the parking lot. and they said when we say go run as fast as you can to the back of the parking lot and we did and when we got back there other officers said go further. go across behind the fire department and shortly thereafter they brought one of the wounded officers and an ambulance came up and put him

into the ambulance and that tooging took off. we never saw a second officer be put into an ambulance. >> do you know at this point if the shots came from the area where there were protesters and exactly where the tops were standing? >> reporter: the gunshots came from an area behind the protesters and a ways up. the protesters were lined up on the sidewalk in front of a tire repair shop and there's a big parking lot there, and there's a, dekt directly across frat police department and that's where they always line up and the police officers on the sidewalk in front of the police department. there's a short street that dead ends into another street and goes up a small hill. it didn't come from the protesters. it came from beyond up at the crest of this small hill a half

a block up so the protesters all hit the ground as well. so it was a very frightening event for everybody there and there were a great deal of people milling around. it was a very warm evening here in st. louis, and there was a very social atmosphere going on behind the protesters. there's a core group of people protesting, and then there was the group of people who were out there to observe, to watch, to just have a social meeting. there was bbqing. there were people having drinks. >> the scene you're describing does not sound like a violent scene. there was no fighting that you saw or that you heard or heard of leading up to this? >> reporter: there were among the socializers, not among the protesters. we noticed a group of people

that you know may have been involved in a scuffle over at the end down at the other end of the block, not part of the protesters so we saw little episodes of them earlier in the evening, but they didn't involve -- it didn't get violent that any of us could see and it didn't appear to be with any of the protesters. >> jennifer thank you. if you can stand by as you gather more information. i want to bring in someone on the scene as well when the officers were shot. bradley, what can you tell us in terms of what you saw, what you were able to shoot even and what information you were able to bring in in the hours after. >> jennifer had it almost spot on as far as where the gunshots came from and were there protester involved in it.

they were separate from the protesters and they wanted to make sure people knew that the people who did the shoot wrg not involved any part of the ferguson protest last evening. >> so bradley, you feel the shots came from somewhere different from where the protesters were. can you give me a sense of where and how far away? >> i'm sure some of your viewers are familiar with ferguson. it's. you probably can google it as well. there's a car shop right across the street from the ferguson police department. there's a street on the err side. the shots came from that street. it was at the top of the hill is where the gunshots that i saw, where they came from. >> and what else did you see? did you actually see the shooting as it went down and how did the crowd respond?

>> actually when the first shot went off, we all thought it was a firework but then we saw two or three more gunshots and we saw the flash from the muzzling of a gun. then we knew it was a gunshot. at that time i heard gunshots flash past my head and a cop behind me was the one shot which was a shock to me that the bullets were so close to myself. and those were scary moments. >> are you saying you were standing near the cops that were shot? >> myself randy, and others as well. and the sound guy, we were close. we were about 10 feet away from them when he was actually shot. >> did you get a sense of how bad the injuries were? >> the cop that we saw, it was conscious when at that time but

he was obviously in pain. you could hear him that he was in pain. but you can also see the pain from the police officers from the fact that their comrade was just shot and you definitely know if anyone had a family member get hurt before people get a sense of what the cops were feeling when they saw the -- at least the one cop on the ground he was obviously in pain. >> this is a community that has been in pain and in term oil for months now. how did they respond in the moments that have happened? >> so most if not all the 50 protesters were all dispursed. there were a group of at least 25 that had to stay behind because their cars were parked on the parking lot that the police swarmed the area. they had a lot of the parking lot blocked off. you couldn't exit the parking

lot. aside from those 25 or so they stuck behind. >> bradley, a lot of people will also be looking at how the police responded. how did they do given that they were targeted and two were shot? >> the police had no other option than to do what they did unless they wanted to shoot inside a random area and that's not part of their professional training. you have to make sure you have a threat before you can take it down, and there was no even though the gunshots came from a visible area there was no visible threat after the gunshots were done. they did what i guess they were trained to do. they took offer and made sure the area was cleared of any danger from the front of them and make sure things were safe. they did that from my viewpoint. >> bradley, thank you. we'll check back in with you. again, a witness to two police officers shot in ferguson, missouri outside the police department just hours after there was other big news out of

ferguson. earlier this morning the st. louis county police chief held a news conference with more details on the injured offers and here's what he had to say. >> so at about 8:00 last night maybe a little bit sooner than that proit'sers arrived in front of the ferg sob police department. i was able to monitor that. and talk to my staff about what was going on. as far as the night goes probably 60 70 people that were up there, it wasn't all that remarkable compared to some of the things that we have experienced over the last few months. but there were quite a few people. in the roadway, sidewalks, in front of the station, et cetera. there was a group of police officers that were up there from different agencies assisting

ferguson and the night was fairly uneventful act midnight. ed a -- it was starting to break up and to the immediate north y northwest of the police department several shots were fired and two officers were struck. a st. louis county officer was struck in the shoulder and a webster groves police officer was shot in the face. they are being treated. i don't have an official status on their season right now. they are conscious. however, those are very serious gunshot injuries to be able to sustain in your shoulder and face. they're being treated right now. the family is with them. the officers will not be identified at this point other than the fact that the st. louis officer is a 41-year-old. and then we have the webster

groves officer who is 32 years old and he's been on the department for approximately five years. i would like to just underscore if i could for a minute we have had an occasion to be involved in many of the events in ferguson since michael brown was killed and i think we've been very fortunate as we've moved forward not to have more things like this happen to us but i have said all along that we cannot sustain this forever without forevers. it's not an indictment on everybody that's out there expressing their first amendment rights but what we have seen in law enforcement that this is a very dangerous environment for the officers to work in regarding the amount of gunfire that we have experienced up there. now, this evening the only shots we were aware of were the shots taken from across the street. in other words, these police officers were standing there,

and they were shot just because they were police officers. we are conducting an investigation right now, and i'll have more on that later on today. i'll answer a couple questions here real quick. >> this was not the people who were exercising their first amendment rights who did the shooting? >> >> i don't know who did the shooting to be honest with you right now, but somehow they were embedded in that group of folks. >> do you have a suspect description at all? >> i don't sncht. >> do you know where the officers were standing? were they behind the police department? >> they were standing directly in front of the police department. that's the best estimate i have right now without talking to my detectives. i have not been to the scene yet. >> can you tell if they were targeted or if this was shots fired into a crowd? >> i would have to make an assumption right now that based on the fact that these officers were standing together and there

were several officers standing right there together when this happened that these were fired that were parallel to the ground not up in the ground. they weren't skip shots, and i would have to make an assumption that these shots were directed directly at my police officers. >> do you know how many police officers were standing together? >> several. i don't have the answer to that right now. >> and as far as the type of gun that was used? >> i don't know that either. >> the chief has to get back inside. >> what kind of security level can we see at this point? what happens now and with what can you tell residents and citizens to dppt. >> it's been volatile at times. it's difficult to sustain this without injury to the public our community and without injuries to our police officers. and i think we need to re-evaluate that. that's one of the things i have been doing since my phone rang at midnight tonight, so we're going to be looking for

different ways to approach this. obviously my first priority is to the community, but that's followed very closely to my police officers and making sure they're able to do what they're supposed to do out there in a safe manner. we're going to be able to talk to you later on today. i'll be looking forward to that. thank you for your time. >> this happening, two officers shot in ferguson just hours after the city's police chief resigned. we're awaiting a news conference later this morning. we'll be back with more from ferguson.

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if you're just zwroining us we're following breaking news from ferguson missouri. two police officers were shot during what had been peaceful protests. this video shows the immediate aftermath. one of the officers is 42 years old from the st. louis county police department. he's been on the force for 14

years. the other 32 years old from webster groves which is about a 14 mile drive. he's a five-year veteran. right now both are in serious condition in the hospital. another story this morning. in the secret service is investigating what could be another embarrassesing i said accident at the white house. two agents are being investigated after allegedly crashing a government car into a car dade. this reportedly happened after drinking at a retirement party. nbc confirmed one of the agents is mark conley. the second in command in president obama's detail. the other agent has been identified as a senior supervisor in the washington field office. the reporter who broke the said officials are especially troubled because it occurred during an active investigation.

>> the car crash was relatively minor in the big scheme of things. they essentially ran into temporary barricades. we don't know if there's damage of the car. what we're being told essentially is these guys appearedappear appeared intoxicated and sources are saying they were driving, specially, through a secure zone that had been roped off because of a suspicious package. >> the director has been briefed and asked the department of homeland's inspector general to oversee the investigation. clancy replaced the other person who resigned after a serious of breeches including one last fall when a man jumped the white house fence and made it all the

way into the east room. we're going to continue following the breaking news out of ferguson. two officers shot outside the police department. that was houred after the police chief resigned. it's unclear who opened fire. we're taking a quick break. more information is coming in so stay with us. opened his first hot chocolate stand calling winter an "underserved season". and before he quit his friend's leaf-raking business for "not offering a 401k." larry knew the importance of preparing for retirement. that's why when the time came he counted on merrill edge to streamline his investing and help him plan for the road ahead. that's the power of streamlined connections. that's merrill edge and bank of america.

we're following breaking news this morning out of ferguson missouri. right now a search is underway for whoever shot two police

officers. this happened during a protest after the city's police chief resigned. at the hour they cannot give a drings of the suspects or the gun involved but he says the wounded officers are fighting for they lives this morning. >> several shots were fired, at least three, and two officers were struck. st. louis county officer was struck in the shoulder and a webster groves police officer was struck in the face. both the offers are here right now. they're being treated. i don't have an official status on what their condition is right now. they are conscious. however, those are very serious gunshot injuries to be able to sustain in your upper torso and in your face. >> full coverage on morning joe in just a few minute. two other headlines this morning. even before hillary clinton was running the state department her top aid apparently approached bill clinton's staff over using

what is now being described as his e-mail server. this according to a new report from the "the wall street journal." she inquired with the aids and the paper reports they were worried about the server's ability to handle the data but in the end they come plied. the state department is suing. some of the requests involved public and private calendars and some dating as far back as five years ago but at least one former secretary of state says she's satisfied with the possible 2016 candidate's answers on the matter. >> i listened to her yesterday. i thought that she really did explain it and she did say that she was sorry, that she hadn't actually done two instruments but i think she did. i think she said it would all be available to the american public and she's open to questions

about it. >> and separately the state department had released an inspector general report saying the department failed to preserve hundreds of millions of e-mails in one year alone. here's nbc news's andrea mitchel. >> a new state department inspector general report says for the past five year most important state department e-mails for all of the state department were not properly archived. a computer upgrade in 2009 when clinton took office failed to preserve thousands of key policy e-mails. employees archived only 61,156 e-mails out of more than a billion sent. they did not receive adequate training. the computer system kept breaking down and some employees deliberately avoided computerized records that could be searched later. >> the more of look, the more of find. coming up the latest from

ferguson. two officers shot shortly after news that the police chief resigned. we'll be joined with people later. they'll also weigh in on the continued developments in the university of oklahoma in the wake of the racist fraternity video. and also martin o'malley has the hillary clinton taken him from long shot to viable challenger? and we'll speak with senator mark warner of virginia who slammed senate republicans for trying to blow up nuclear negotiations with iran. that and much more coming up next on morning joe.

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♪ we're gonna pop around the clock tonight. ♪ pop in new tide pods plus febreze a 4 in 1 detergent that cleans brightens and fights stains. now with 24-hour freshness. all right. we're following breaking news this morning out of ferguson, my vurry, where just hours after the city's police chief resigned two police officers were shot during protests outside the ferguson police department. the officers were taken to a nearby hospital in serious condition. they're not identified at this point, but there